The Name Of The Father
by dannyspudge
Summary: The Catholic Church is an Old and Very Powerful institution, but even they need to protect themselves from the creation of demented minds. A killing attributed to a gang war draws the Teen Titans into somthing that may prove itself beyond even their power


_The name of the Father._

_Disclaimer: What the hell gave you the idea that I own anything in this story except Father Hannagan, Father Dougal and the Mystery General what ever I decide to call him. Sameir Duran is a character from Star Craft: Brood War whilst Jagged Jimmy is actually a NPC name from Fallout 2. The Teen Titans and the other things I don't own, belong to their owners (Obviously). Those who flame the story will die in the story, I can always find a way. Enjoy. Mr Dannyspudge. _

_Updated 28.10.2005 tidied up, re-vamped and with added bits. ENJOY! _

_Dedicated to _Demon-in-the-shadows, Odd Writer, deathknight sora and Keystone. My reviewers. They are as Gods amongst mortals.

_Date: 14/5/1990_

_Location: Unknown military base, USA._

"_Well Dr Duran, it seems that everything is running according to schedule, when will my creation be ready? I have a lot of interested parties, who will want to buy it when they see what it can do."_

_Dr Sameir Duran flinched at the sound of his employer's voice. 'Where the shit did he comes from' he thought. "It should be ready in the next couple of week's sir._

"_WEEKS" the man thundered "tell me why it is taking so long? You promised me that it would be ready in a three months, and that was half a year ago!"_

"_There have been some ... complications, for example, the genetic structure of the creature is very unstable, it's prone to breakdowns, mutations and…"_

"_I don't care doctor, either fix the problems or face the consequences. I stated when I hired you that I am intolerant of failure, and that it would be met by severe penalties" interrupted the shadowy figure. _

"_I will try my best sir" replied Dr Duran "Of course it will require some time to mature"_

"_I can accept that, IF, you deliver results." The last sentence was laced with daggers._

_Date: 20/5/1999_

_Location: The Vatican, Vatican city Rome_

_Father Patrick Hannagan shifted uncomfortably in the leather armchair of the papal waiting room, however it wasn't the chair that was making him nervous, it was the fact that the Pope himself had sent for him. This was an unusual occurrence as the Pope only ever requested the presence of those members of the clergy who had sinned or had attempted to warp the minds of their parishioners. He was only 30 and had been a priest for but a few years, his past life in the Irish equivalent of MI6 had left him in a good physical condition and with several bodily scars. He was awoken from his reverie by the voice of a Swiss guard_

"_The pope will see you now"_

_Father Hannagan entered the ornate room and bowed before the head of the church._

"_Father, we have a small errand of mercy for you to perform for us, if you do then your name will be spoken with awe and respect in heaven"_

"_I am yours to command your worship" replied Father Hannagan_

"_Something has come up in America, and it troubles us greatly" said the Pope_

"_How can I be of assistance?" _

_Date: 02/02/2005_

_Location: Gotham City _

It was a dark night on the scum and vice ridden streets of downtown Gotham. The kind of night where you can hear sounds from all across the city, the laughter of clubbers, the squeal of car tires , the sound of a city at night, then the gunshots. And the sound of running feet.

Jagged Jimmy took his name from the huge scar that ran down his face, attained in a cocaine deal gone horribly awry, he was the leader of one of Gotham's most feared street gangs, running everything from low level protection rackets to muggings and drug deals, he also made a tidy amount doing robberies for many of the shady business concerns that flourished in Gotham. He and his boys had not expected trouble, especially in the form of a smart suited preacher, collar, rosary and all.

Easy pickings he had thought, ten of us, one of him, no problem, he had thought. Huge fucking problem as it turned out.

Flashback:

"Yo preacher, out pretty late ain't we, thought the Mother Superior would have you tucked into bed by now", the others laughed while the victim of this ridicule merely stood impassively. Seeing the priest was unperturbed by this, Jimmy decided on a more aggressive approach, "what ya doin in my part o town, ya know that anyone who goes through my turf has to pay protection to me and my boys here". "And what if I wont, are you gonna try and hurt me? Replied the Preacher impassively.

"Well boys" said Jimmy turning and grinning malevolently at his men, "we got ourselves a hero, a clerical hero no less". He span back round to face the preacher, "now listen up and listen up good motherfucker, look around you, these are my boys, this is my turf so now you gotta choose, either pay up or get fucked up".

End of Flashback:

Jimmy's mind raced 'Who would have known that he would turn out to be so fast, and that the goddamm preacher would have a gun.' Jimmy had lost two of his men before he could blink, and now here he was running like a coward, while his men met with a hail of lead. Even more troubling was the question, how the preacher know his name?

Meanwhile a few streets back:

BOOM! BOOM! Grey chunks sprayed across the wall as the last of Jagged Jimmy's henchman caught a piece of speeding lead with his frontal lobe. Father Hannagan pressed a new clip into his gun, and peered out into the alley. When no new targets presented themselves, he straightened up and looked around, "Bugger, sorry lord, the last one got away" he muttered to himself. He started to walk in the direction that Jimmy had taken, when a low groaning caught his attention, one of the henchmen had survived the gunfight.

Father Hannagan walked over to the bleeding mans prostrate body, and looked him up and down; well he thought the lord works in mysterious ways. "Well my son, this is an interesting situation, you are mortally wounded and I can either make things worse or I can ease your passage into the next world, now where has your boss gone to ground?" he said giving the wounded thug a small kick to the gut. The man screamed in pain, "where is he" came the repeated question, followed by a powerful kick to the ribs

The thug was not having a good night, first he got shot then started getting a kicking from a member of the clergy, no amount of loyalty was worth this. "He, he's goin to the Shark club on 56th street" came the painful reply. Father Hannagan removed the Desert Eagle and cocked it "Well done my son, you have made the right choice, the Lord will greet you in Heaven" he stated and pulled the trigger.

Rain pounded the Teen Titans tower like the tears of the lord, confining all five of the ankle biting crime busters indoors. Robin was helping Starfire to make cakes in the kitchen, Cyborg was re-charging, Raven was meditating in her room while Beast Boy was gazing out of the window pondering the great unknown and thinking about life. There was great cause for retrospect in the changeling though, the Titans had been going for a long old while now, Cy was in his 20"s while the others were all 18 or 19, and even thought Slade was still around he had been very quiet recently and crime in Jump city was down to the occasional bank robbery or murder, Beast boy was tired, he was tired of constantly having to battle inane and mostly inept criminals, he was tired of the life he was leading and he was tired of the Dark titan constantly shitting on his feelings for her with this "I don't do emotions" scam.

"Beast Boy" a melodious voice awoke him from his somewhat negative thought induced daze, "why are you sitting alone at the window and not playing on the game station" queried Starfire entering the room with Robin, "are you feeling ill". Beast boy turned from his seat to see both Robin and Star looking at him both concerned and amused at the same time. "No Star I'm fine, really" the green one lied. The melodious tones of Robin's communicator struck up suddenly. "Batman, long time no see."

"Nice to see you too Robin" replied Batman, a rare smile gracing his granite features.

"So what can I help you with, I mean you don't call unless you need something, because you think that you are interfering" queried Robin

"True, true" mused Batman, then his demeanour turned serious "there's a problem headed your way, a big one"

Jagged Jimmy was sweating heavily, as he sat in his office; he strengthened his grasp on the sub-machinegun in his hand. Even with his men crawling the building and two guards on the door, there was something about the preacher that he had escaped from earlier. The guy didn't look like someone who would forget a face or a grudge, and if the, man knew Jimmy's name and face, and then he probably knew a lot more as well.

Father Hannagan looked at the club, its neon signs flickering and flashing to a machine gun beat, 'can't go in the front, too many innocents, ah, well round to the back' he thought.

Producing a bible from his trouser pocket he strolled up to the back door of the club and knocked on the door. The eye slit opened up, and a pair of suspicious and rat like eyes appeared. "Waddya want" questioned the nasal voice.

"I'm here to clean your soul" came the reply, as Father Hannagan rammed the bible into the eye slit, smacking the man behind the door right in the face. The guy staggered back and fell to the ground. Drawing his silenced Desert Eagle, Father Hannagan kicked in the lock, and stepped back as two men ran through. The second henchman spun round, as his companions head exploded into a shower of bone flecks and brain matter, just in time to receive his own personal metal sandwich.

As the second man's corpse slumped to the ground Father Hannagan stepped into the back of the club, in time to see another two men come running out of the adjoining passage, dropping the first man like a live grenade, Hannagan pointed his gun at the second, "where is your boss?" he demanded, "Fuck you man, I aint gonna tell you nothing" replied the thug nervously, eyeing the body of his comrade, "look boyo you can either leave this place alive, or in a pine box, I don't care either way so you decide. Tell ya what since I am a nice guy I'll give you 10 seconds to decide" Father Hannagan stated.

"10"

"Fuck you, I tell you I'm as good as dead anyway"

"Too bad, 8"

"You can't do this to me man, you aint no priest"

"2, 1, decide sinner!" exclaimed Father Hannagan, blowing a hole in his captive's kneecap, the man screamed in pain and fell to the ground "where is he? Father Hannagan screamed.

"AHHHH, oh god, oh god, you shot me, you bastard, you shot me, my fuckin kneecap" howled the gangster "if you don't talk then your head is next" came the blank statement.

" ahhh shit, ok,ok,ok I'll tell you, just leave me alone, he's on the second floor" whimpered the bleeding man.

Father Hannagan straightened up "Thank you my son," he said warmly, pointing the gun at the downed thug "and may the Lord be with you" then pulling the trigger.

Jimmy was getting nervous, the men that he had sent out of the room on a patrol had been gone for an hour, and the three men with him in his office could sense that something was up. Then there came a knock at the door, "boss, its me Rubin, let me in".

Jimmy nodded to one of his men, who opened the door, and fell back in dead. Father Hannagan dropped the other gang member that he had captured, and then blew big holes into the chests of the two remaining bodyguards. He dropped and rolled into the centre of the room pointing his weapon at Jagged Jimmy. "Hello Jimmy, you don't know me, but, well I know a lot about you and what you do down here. Especially the thefts for businesses, Jimmy my boy do the Ten Commandments not say 'thou shalt not steal' hmm?"

"Who the hell are you man, cos, I'm damm sure that you aint no preacher" demanded Jagged Jimmy.

"Well I am a little more than your average priest, and since you are going to die at some point, I'll let youse in on a secret", Father Hannagan, stood up and walked towards where the once proud gang leader now cowered and crouched down till he was level with his adversary. "The ting is now, Jimmy my lad, I work for God, and a few weeks ago, you and your now posthumous friends stole from a warehouse, and what you stole was of great importance to the Catholic Church, and I want to know where it went. So now, I want you ta tell me where the cup of the Father is and who you sold it to, or I'll cut your balls off."

"Man I don't know what the shit you are talking about, what the hell is the cup of the father? You be crazy" came the fearful reply

Father Hannagan considered this for a moment, then he grabbed Jimmy by the throat, and smacked him into the wall, "no my child, I'm dedicated, crazy would be this". With his free hand, he produced a long and very sharp knife. Kneeing Jagged Jimmy square in the balls, Father Hannagan, grabbed Jimmy's hand, and plunged the knife through the unfortunate man's hand and into the wall beyond, and stepped back to admire his work.

Jagged Jimmy screamed in pain, clawed vainly at the nine inches of steel that pinned his hand to the wall, suddenly Father Hannagan, grasped hold of his other hand and plunged another knife into both his hand and the wall. Grabbing the now, hoarse with pain Jimmy, by the face, Father Hannagan spoke to him, "its Jesus time boyo, you can either tell me or you can tell the lord, but both ways end in me knowing who you sold that relic to."

"How big of a problem are we talking about here?" Inquired the Boy wonder his eyes narrowing. "Big enough to wipe out a street gang" came the troubling reply.

"Holy shit Batman" uttered Robin "any ideas as to who this psycho is?"

"None" came the reply "That's what worries me, if it was the Joker then they would have all died smiling. From the looks of it however they died in an enormous amount of pain. It doesn't look like the work of anyone that I've ever fought, looks like ex-military, very accurate and more than a little bit warped.

The leader of the gang, one James 'Jagged Jimmy' Peters was found about a mile away in his nightclub, pinned to a wall by knives through his hands and a crucifix lodged in his stomach, dead just like all of his bodyguards. I've seen a few people killed like that, but they were a lot more important that Jimmy there."

"Who?" queried Robin?

"Mostly shady business men and crooked military R&D scientists." Replied the dark knight

"More to the point Batman, why would, whoever did this come to Jump City?"

"This morning Commissioner Gordon was sent a box, containing a rosary and a piece of paper that said 'The Lord blesses Gotham, the first of many to come into the fold', I'm not entirely sure what it means but the perpetrator could be headed your way, just thought that I'd give you a heads up, so you are not caught unawares. If you need anything then call me, take care" stated Batman.

"Thanks Batman" said Robin.

Father Hannagan stepped out of the revolving door in Jump City International airport and took in a deep breath, 'I've missed this place' he thought, 'I really have'.

He climbed into a nearby taxi, "take me to the Church of the Holy Epiphany" he told the driver. 15 minutes later the taxi pulled up to the church steps. Hannagan paid the driver and grabbed his case from the back seat, climbing the church steps; he was confronted by his friend and former mentor Father Dougal.

"Father Hannagan, it's good to see you again." Greeted Father Dougal

"It's good to see you to Father Dougal; it's been a while hasn't it?"

"Indeed it has, my son, please, come inside, come inside" said Father Dougal ushering his erstwhile friend into the calm privacy of the church.

As he entered the church Father Hannagan assessed his friend. The years had been kind the Father Dougal, but not his hair. While his friend had kept his tall and somewhat imposing stature, his hair was grey and was confined to the sides of his head, making the top part of his skull look like a mountain rising through the clouds.

When the two priests were safely ensconced in the sanctuary of Father Dougle's living quarters, Father Dougal spoke up, "So I take it that you're converting the heathens, with lethal force no doubt."

"Its part of the calling Dougal, you know that, you used to be a member of the order. It's my job to protect the faith with whatever means at my disposal."

"But Pat, surely even you can see that there are better things to do with a human mind that splatter it onto a wall". Father Dougal let out a sigh "Anyway, who have you come here to redeem of their sins?"

"What does a thug like Jagged Jimmy have to do with Slade and all these murdered business men" murmured Robin rhetorically. He and Starfire had, for several hours, been researching the link between the way jagged Jimmy had died, and the other people murdered in the same way. All that they had managed to dredge up were a parade of murdered businessmen and military researchers, who had been in the pay of Slade, and obscure newspaper articles on a secret organisation in the Catholic Church, which they chose to ignore, as many came from the gutter press, and were as such untrustworthy.

"Why do the articles of news not say what the scientists were researching" asked Starfire curiously.

"Probably because they don't know, it's likely that what ever they were working on was a state secret" replied Robin.

He clicked on another article. The page flashed up with the headline 'Top Bio-researcher found dead in City Lake'; it was only a few days old. He read the article aloud "Leading biological researcher Dr Samier Duran was found dead yesterday in Corbie Lake. Dr Duran was reported missing on Friday by his wife, when he failed to come home from Fort Gregory where he was working on a project for the US military." 'That's just outside town' thought Robin, continuing with the article, he began to read again. "It is thought that Dr Duran had committed suicide due to pressure from work, wife Sara said that the doctor had recently been under a huge amount of pressure from the government to complete a military research project. He left a wife and child." Finished Robin.

"Robin, if Dr Duran worked at Fort Gregory then he must have lived near by, yes?" asked Starfire.

"I suppose so" said Robin.

"Well if he lived near by then, we should be able to go and talk to his wife. She may have an idea as to what he was working on." Suggested Starfire.

"Good idea Star, well done". Congratulated the boy wonder

"Really? Oh thank you Robin, how joyous" exclaimed Starfire, jumping onto Robin and hugging him tightly. It took him a few second to realise that as he was still seated in the office chair, that Starfire was pretty much sitting on his lap. 'Uh oh', he thought as he detected a certain stirring in his lower regions, brought on by two things: one, the close proximity of Starfire's body to his, and two, by the fact that she had unknowingly mashed his face right in between her breasts, not that he was complaining. 'God, if you really exist then please, please don't let her feel this' he inwardly prayed. At the same instant of his thoughts, Starfire was thinking 'oh my, robins lap seems to be poking me, which means….' Her train of thought, stopped at the station of realisation, as she thought about which bit of Robins abdomen could possibly poking her.

But then their eyes met and all awkwardness seemed to vanish like morning dew in the sunlight of dawn. Neither of them had realised that the distance between their respective pairs of lips was down to mere millimetres. If he hadn't been so caught up in the moment, then he could have Starfire's heart beating against his chest, but all that registered was Star's face and how close they were to one another.

"Hey man, any luck so far?" asked Cyborg, walking into the room and shattering the moment like a pane of glass. As if feeling the imaginary machetes that the pair were eviscerating him with, he looked at Robin and Starfire properly for the first time since entering the room.

"What? Why you looking at me like that, it's not like I interrupted….ahhh, I see, sorry Robin, didn't know that you were getting intimate with Star, I'll go". He smirked, backing through the door.

As the door slid shut the full awkwardness of the situation rose up and hit both of them in the face. Hard.

"Robin, I um, I er... Bye" stammered Starfire sliding off of Robins lap, blushing like a nun in a brothel. Then she bolted through the door the door and left Robin, confused, blushing like mad and wide eyed, sitting in the office chair. After a few minutes of slack jawed and somewhat stunned reflection on what had just happened, and the fact that it didn't work out like in his dreams, Robin stood up and went to the common room, research all but forgotten. He now had a sudden urge to hit something. Cyborg would do nicely.

Cyborg mean while, oblivious to his impending beating, was enlightening Beast Boy on what had occurred between Robin and Starfire

"You should have seen them man, they were just about to start….SHIT!" exclaimed Cyborg as he saw an enraged Robin emerge through the doorway.

"It was nice to know you CY, see you on the other side" said the changeling fleeing from the room.

"Robin, dude, I swear on my mother grave, I didn't see a thing, not one thing". Cyborg babbled in a vain attempt to escape a beating.

"Shut up and sit down you nine sided whore!" screamed Robin.

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to regain his composure, he began to speak again. "I don't know what you think you saw, going no between me and Star, but let me make it very, very clear for you. You saw nothing, all right, nothing, got it?"

"Ok, ok, ok, I've got it. You and Star were not about to play tonsil hockey." Replied Cyborg defensively.

"Good. Just as long as you get the message. And if you tell anyone about what you didn't see then I will personally turn you into a fucking toaster" stated Robin heatedly as he stalked from the room.

In the pink, happy and unnervingly fluffy sanctum of Starfire's room, the green eyed alien lay on her bed, replaying the events that had just occurred between her and the team's leader over and over again in her head. Her mind had split into two sides, extreme joy and earth shattering embarrassment. The happy side was yelling "ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, you just had a 'Moment' with Robin, ROBIN for gods sake, the walking sexpot that you think and dream of almost constantly!"

Whereas the embarrassed side was screaming "What the hell were you doing, you were practically gyrating on his penis, he's going to think that you are a whore!"

In the midst of this titanic conflict between embarrassment and joy, a small thought emerged into her consciousness 'I hope that Robin I thinking about this as much as I am."

However not possessing the telepathic powers of Raven, she was unable to check. It would have brought her some joy however to know that Robins thoughts were the same as hers. Lying on his bed, his mind was also a battleground between embarrassment and euphoric joy.

One half of his mind was saying "DUDE! You just had a 'Moment' with Star, the same girl that you have been crushing on since you met her, Hot Damm!" while the other half screamed at him "She could feel you dick stabbing her in the ass, man she's gonna think that you are a creepy pervert and avoid you at all costs."

In an attempt to calm the raging battle inside of his mind, Robin decided to go for a walk.

" I must admit you don't do things on a small scale do you?" remarked Father Dougal "The U.S. military won't just let you walk out of the country, having just iced their top Bio warfare commanders and an escaped Bio weapon, which incidentally they have spent five years looking for. Not only that but if you carry this one out then watch the Teen Titans, or else they will bring you down. You're going to get a lot of heat from them for this."

"Teen Titans?" said Father Hannagan ponderously "The ones that live in the tower, right?"

"Yes Father. They regard all killings, even killing people, if you can call them people, like your target as a bad thing. And as for your intentions towards the other target, all I can say, is that they won't hesitate to avenge one of their own!"

"Ah well, guess I'll have to show them that it's all for the greater good" stated Father Hannagan.

"You don't honestly expect them to believe that do you? Snorted Father Dougal

"Not at first, but you know what they say, a lie will travel around the world before the truth can get its boots on. You of all people should know how true that is." Said Father Hannagan in a cynical tone. "Anyway" he continued "did you manage to get the stuff that I asked you for?"

Father Dougal fished in the pocket of his jacket and retrieved a black leather wallet. He passed it over to Father Hannagan. "This has the key to locker 137. That has your equipment and a map. Remember locker 137 in the subway station. Take care Brian. This city isn't as innocent as it looks.

Father Hannagan picked up the wallet, thanked his mentor and strolled calmly into the night.

_Date: 27/05/1995_

_Location: Unknown military base. USA _

_1st Sergeant Malloy tightened his grip on the assault rifle, he could sense that something was very, very wrong here, but he couldn't quite place what. The rest of his squad could sense it too._

"_Alright ladies, split into pairs and have a look around. And stay sharp, we don't know what's down here. Radio contact at all times. I want an all clear from everyone every half hour."_

_As the squad split into pairs and went in opposite directions, Sergeant Malloy found himself paired with Private Lucas, the squad's own Jesus freak. As the pair walked quietly down the maze of dank service corridors that crisscrossed the underground section of the base, Malloy almost thought that he could hear something breathing. Stopping suddenly, he held up a hand for silence._

"_Lucas did you hear that?" he whispered turning to Lucas…to where Lucas should have been. Looking down Sergeant Malloy recoiled in horror from the corpse that was Lucas, before his neck decided to vacate the area. Flicking the safety off the rifle, Malloy backed away from the body. Suddenly he felt what was apparently a rain drop hit the back of his neck, then cold realisation dawned, he was underground, it couldn't have been rain. Looking up, all he saw was a hissing green figure on the ceiling before his world filled with a sudden explosion of claws, teeth and pain and blackness._

_Dr Duran shuddered as the screams from the soldiers floated through the comm. system, he hadn't wanted this, not for innocent people to be killed. But whereas to him the screams of terror and agony were a torment, to the figure at the desk, clouded in darkness they seemed to be a symphony, a thing of beauty. "Well done Dr. Looks like you might be of some use to me yet. Besides your creation seems to be shaping up nicely. Tell me, how much money would it cost for you to make more of them?"_

Date: 05/02/2005

Location: Jump City, the Titans Tower.

Deep in the dark, gothic sanctuary known as Raven's room, the purple haired titan was deep in meditation. She had been doing this a lot recently. In truth it could be said that it was only the meditation and several dozen cups of herbal tea, that were keeping mind body and soul together for the gloomy titan.

Since Beast Boy's confession of his feelings towards her, Raven's once neat and tidy mind had become a whirlwind of thoughts, hopes and non-existent happy endings. There were things inside her screaming and shouting at her for rejecting him out of hand. You could have been happy, they screamed, content, loved. The logical and reasonable parts of her brain rejected this, but the thoughts still came back, every day and every night in her dreams.

She often wondered which was worse, the thought that plagued her in the day or the fact that since Beast Boy's confession to her, her dreams had started to hit new peaks of eroticism the she had never event thought possible. She was waking up every morning with shattered possessions all over the room flushed, sweating and with a certain moistness in her lower regions that even a bath tub of sweat could not account for.

Last night however the dream was anything but erotic, but just as vivid as the others.

She had dreamed that she and Beast Boy had been getting intimate together in the city park, when she had found herself suddenly unable to move. Beast Boy had been cradling her in his arms when a figure clothed in black had stepped forwards and pulled a gun on the green titan. Beast Boy had flipped backwards, landed and had turned to face the assailant.

She had tried to tell him to run but she had found herself unable to speak so when he landed, the figure re-aimed and pulled the trigger, once, twice, three times. Her green friend had twirled like an obscene ballerina when the first round impacted, the second hit into his ribs, making a hole the size of an apple in his ribcage, the third hit him clean between the eyes dropping him to the ground and splashing the surroundings with changeling brain matter. Raven had felt her heart snap into two when the rounds impacted into his body. The figure then ambled towards Raven and pressed a small crucifix into her limp hands before disappearing. After that dream she had awoken in a cold sweat, and rushed to check on Beast Boy. He was fine, asleep in his bed, Raven however was very shaken up.

This is why the morning had seen her searching the tower for Cyborg. He was the only one whom she felt that she could confide in. In a different situation she might have chosen to tell Beast Boy about it, but at the moment the mere sight of the green skinned one was enough to start the thoughts off again, and when she had met his gaze, the look of hurt in his eyes was like a thousand daggers.

She found the metallic titan down in the garage, waxing and polishing his 'Baby'.

"Cyborg, could I, err, could I talk to you for a moment" asked Raven in a somewhat uncertain manner.

"Sure Rae, what's up?" asked Cyborg. She told him about the dream, about Beast Boy being killed, about the figure but not about what she and Beast Boy were doing in the park. When she had finished, Raven paused for a moment to gauge the reaction of her friend.

"Shit, Raven, you have some damm strange dreams. Think it could be a premonition?" asked Cyborg

"To be honest Cyborg, I don't really know" she replied

"OK. Rae, can I ask you a question, and I want an honest answer please?"

"What?"

Cyborg took a deep breath and continued "What's the deal between you and BB, you two used to be really close, but now you can't event stand being in the same room as him. Take yesterday for example, as soon as he came in the kitchen you left. I mean you took one look at him and fled. What's going on there huh?"

Raven stared at Cyborg wide eyed. She didn't think that anyone else had noticed. Regaining her composure somewhat she began. Before I tell you, promise that you will never tell anyone, especially Beast Boy?"

"That's fair. I promise, not a word of this shall pass my lips to anyone else".

"Alright, about a month ago, he asked me to come up to the roof and he told me that, he loved me and asked if I felt the same."

"Do you?" asked Cyborg

"I-I-I, I don't know, I mean, since then I've had these thoughts about him, and, um… dreams." she stuttered.

"Dreams." Said Cyborg dubiously, "right, I know that this is a question that I probably don't want to know the answer to, but what kind of dreams?"

Ravens face filled with blood, turning her a curious shade of scarlet. She looked down at the floor and subjected it to a detailed study whilst muttering the words "Sexy dreams"

If it wasn't for the fact that he didn't have any, Cyborg would have lost his eyebrows to the ceiling in surprise.

"Let me get this right, you said sexy dreams, right? He asked, a small grin appearing on his face

Raven started to subject her boots to an intensive study, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her whole. She mumbled something that Cyborg didn't quite catch.

Raven, now a very entertaining shade of scarlet, gave off an embarrassed mutter of "sexy dreams, k?"

Cyborg's grin was now the size of a tennis racket, and was growing larger by the second. "Sorry girl, I still can't hear you. Must need a tune up or something. Say it louder, with feeling." He smirked

Ravens eye started to twitch like it had epilepsy, and she screamed at her metal friend, "SEXY DREAMS OK? Dreams where myself and beast boy are having hot, passionate, steamy, sexy SEX, DOES THAT COMPUTE?

Even though he could sense the anger coming off his friend, Cyborg couldn't help but give her one last little push. " Ok, ok, no need to bite my head off. It's just, well, ya know, kind of weird. What with it being you, and Sexy dreams about Beast Boy."

Raven, now unable to turn any deeper shade of red, grabbed Cyborg by the ear, and snarled "WHAT do you mean weird. JUST BECAUSE I HAVE TO CONTROL MY EMOTIONS DOESN'T MEAN I CANNOT HAVE INTIMAE SEXUAL WANTS OR FANTASY'S ABOUT MY TEAMMATES." Then the realisation of just how loudly she was screaming was made all too apparent by Robin looking through the door and screaming for them to keep the noise down.

Looking at his friend, Cyborg realised that maybe he had gone a little too far. Raven looked like she was having a breakdown. "I'm sorry Raven, that wasn't helpful. Look, maybe you should talk to Beast Boy about this, and try to clear everything up."

She looked up at him with a mix of defeat and distain "What am I going to do Cyborg? These dreams are driving me to distraction, and I can't even look at Beast Boy with out feeling his pain." She muttered, her voice beginning to crack

"If I could help you Raven then I would do, but it's between you and Beast Boy. All I can say I think about how you feel about him. I'm not really the best person to talk to about relationships, being the way I am and all" he sighed "Star would probably be better to talk to about this. Sorry."

Date: 05/ 02/2005

Location: Jump City Subway Station

The entrance to Jump city subway station loomed large over Father Hannagan as he made his way to locker 137. He retrieved the case and then proceeded to ensconce himself in the men's toilet cubical and subjected the map of his target area to a detailed look over.

"How on earth am I meant to access and infiltrate an underground base" he muttered to himself. Then inspiration dawned "Castle!"


End file.
